


After Thoughts

by latesummernights



Category: Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1974), The Great Gatsby (2013)
Genre: Character Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:40:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23855500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/latesummernights/pseuds/latesummernights
Relationships: Nick Carraway & Jay Gatsby
Kudos: 5





	After Thoughts

In the six months I was living at the East Egg it became my home, the quaint bungalow perched on the edge of the Sound, dwarfed by Gatsby’s ridiculously opulent mansion. The events that transpired taught me a lot, not just about myself but about the morality of those I chose to surround myself with. Jay Gatsby was always rather confusing, an enigma. Looking back on the time we spent together it would be too easy to say that I thought he was a great man, but that would not be truthful and my honesty precedes me. I disapproved of Gatsby and his arrogantly lavish lifestyle. However, as Gatsby’s body lay to rest, I could not help but pity him. At the end of the day nobody really cared about him, with the exception of me, his father and the owl eyed man from the library. Even Daisy was gone. Her and Tom’s timely retreat, to only God knows where, left me feeling ashamed of my cousin’s actions and her flighty tendencies.

My fleeting, but nonetheless real, romance with Jordan Baker came to a sudden halt the day after the plaza. When she called that morning her manner, which had once seemed fresh and cool, was harsh and dry. The small talk quickly came to a stop and one of us hung up, I am not entirely certain of who it was. I only saw Jordan once again after that; on my insistence we sat to talk through everything that had happened. During the rather one-sided conversation she remained indifferent. After I had finished she informed me that she was now engaged to another man. I left feeling angry, sorry and still half in love with her.

The whole situation made me feel slightly nauseous. As soon as I heard that Tom had some woman in New York, it seemed to me Daisy ought to leave, flee that house with child in arms; but it became clear to me that she had no intention of doing so. Maybe if I took more of an active part in their scene at the plaza the outcome would be different; however, I had no desire to partake in their petty games, so I stopped myself from interjecting.

Tom Buchanan was arrogant in all aspects, his aggressive stature dominated every room he entered. He held a hypocritical anger and had a certain decisiveness about him, he often too quickly dismissed thoughts that one should ponder upon. This annoyed me. Daisy Buchanan was quite the contrast, perpetually whimsical and fickle. She once told me that she always watched for the longest day of the year yet missed it every time. She was absent-minded like that. Her train of thought changed direction quickly, it was often hard to keep up with her in a conversation. Daisy often made me feel rather uncivilised, not on purpose of course, but her ideas and disposition always were more sophisticated than my own. She had this way of looking at you as though she was promising that there was no one else in this world she would rather see. Jay Gatsby had an obsession with events that have already come to pass, but I maintained a certain respect for him and how hard he had worked to get where he was. Gatsby made something of himself, he started at nothing and steadily rose through the social classes despite all odds being stacked against him. One thing all three of them seemed to share was the same skewered sense of morality.

It seemed to me that Gatsby was the only one, out of himself, Tom and Daisy, who was not self driven. They all had their priorities, for Tom it was purely his own ego, for Daisy I think it may have been the money and power, why else would she put up with Tom’s infidelities? Gatsby, however, was solely driven by love; his love for Daisy. I have no doubt that she was the reason why he did what he did. She was why he moved to the East, why he threw such extravagant parties and why he befriended me and Jordan Baker. I cannot help but feel compassion for Gatsby and his love for a woman who could never love anything but affluence and prestige.

I suppose our last conversation was rather hopeful; I left with a promise to call at noon and Gatsby gave the sanguine suggestion that Daisy ought to call as well. I would like to think that Gatsby died optimistic, thinking the phone call he expected would ring at any second, and he would hear Daisy’s voice echo down the phone line to greet his ear. However, realistically I imagine that Gatsby himself lost the deceptive belief that the telephone message would ever arrive. I am glad that the last sentence I uttered to him was a compliment, but it may have been the only one I had ever given to him. After Gatsby passed the east was haunted for me, my eyes could not unsee his figure, as quiet and alone as the day I first saw him on the dock. So I fled with the change of the seasons, returning to Minnesota with the coming of Autumn.


End file.
